


Don't go where I can't follow

by beyourhero



Series: running from the ashes we left [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Heartbreak, M/M, but it wasn't fully discussed, spoilers for snk 115
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 07:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18027746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyourhero/pseuds/beyourhero
Summary: Levi stared at Eren without muttering a single word. His grey eyes were burning holes in his body, and a shiver ran down Eren’s spine. It was unnerving to have the man right there, so close and yet so far from him, so distant and silent.





	Don't go where I can't follow

**Author's Note:**

> I was planning something even angstier, but then more spoilers, and yeah, i left it at 1000 something words.  
> Enjoy!

Trying to save humanity and his own sanity, was draining an empty. In his head, Eren was doing his best, but he couldn’t please everyone, not even himself. He couldn’t follow his father’s wishes, he couldn’t protect his friends, it felt as if he was failing every person in his life.

That hurt, but that feeling strengthen him. In his loneliness, though, Eren tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing.

He looked out of the window, as he had been doing for the previous hours. Without a knock, the door was opened, and with the same bored face, he looked at his visitor. But, when Eren spotted the slim figure slipping inside the room, his eyes widened momentarily, before he scolded his features. He had learned from the best. 

“Captain Levi, I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon,” Eren greeted his former superior officer, remaining in his spot by the window, “I suppose you finally brought Zeke here or did Hange convince you?”

Levi stared at Eren without muttering a single word. His grey eyes were burning holes in his body, and a shiver ran down Eren’s spine. It was unnerving to have the man right there, so close and yet so far from him, so distant and silent. On the corner of his eye, Eren could see him, his pale, paler than usual skin, his hair the same black, spotting a couple of greys. His frame was small but powerful, he had seen him, had felt him, and the memory of the warmth once shared with Levi, still lived somewhere in his memories.

Eren sighed, rolled his head and cranked the kinks in his neck, everything under Levi’s scrutiny, who was still like a statue. “You want some tea?” Asked Eren, moving to the small table in the corner, “just like the old times, you and me, sitting with a cup of tea, just the two of us.” But, to Eren’s surprise, Levi hadn’t moved or blinked.

“So, is this how it’s gonna be? You’re gonna stay there, silently judging me with your sharp eyes without a word? Because if that’s the case, you’re wasting your time. I’ll put you with the others, I need to talk with Zeke first.”

A dry laugh, a foreign sound coming from Levi’s lips, resounded through the stoned room. Shivers erupted on Eren’s skin, and he turned around to look at Levi, with a frown. “What are you playing at, Levi? How did you get in here?”

“I have nowhere else to go,” Levi finally replied, and his voice sounded so deep and raspy, and fuck, he still had some power on Eren after all, “wherever you go, I’ll follow you.”

Eren clenched his jaw, avoiding Levi’s gaze, “It’s late for that. I asked you to wait for me. I begged you to trust me, and you only saw me as if I were garbage from the underground -you said so yourself.”

“I know what I said,” Levi said, walking over to Eren, with small steps, walking so lightly that it appeared as if he were floating, “but I also know that here,” he touched Eren’s temple with a soft touch, “lives the same passionate boy that I met years ago.”

“And here,” his fingers, oddly cold, brushed down the side of his face and his neck, stopping above Eren’s heart, “lives the man I fell for.”

Levi wasn’t the best with words, but when he tried to express himself, he was painfully honest, and Eren could see it in his eyes, the silver pools that lacked shimmer, told him that he wasn’t lying, and that was as comforting as painful.

“I won’t change my mind,” Eren stood firm, taking Levi’s hand from his chest, and the man half-smiled at him.

“I know you won’t. But you’ve lost everyone you ever loved, Eren. Make that sacrifice worthwhile.”

Three knocks at his door startled him, and Eren put some distance between him and Levi, breathing deeply and crossing his arms over his chest. “Yes?”

“Sir, your brother is here,” announced Floch, entering the room, “He’ll wait for you downstairs. Hange escaped, but we got him back. Some of my men are patrolling the area, looking for her and Captain Levi?”

Eren’s eyebrows raised slightly and looked on the corner of his eyes at Levi, who didn’t seem fazed by Floch. “Captain Levi?”

“Yes, Sir. He… he was badly injured when the spare that he put in Mr. Zeke exploded. I doubt he’s alive, but we’ll make sure that he doesn’t come back to cause us any trouble.”

“Levi’s dead?” Eren asked breathlessly.

“Probably, yes.”

Eren’s breath caught in his throat, and he turned to fully look at Levi, noticing the ragged scar that ran down the right side of his face, and the other marks on the other side. Scars that weren’t there mere minutes ago.

“Sir?” Eren dismissed Floch with a gesture of his hand, and when the door was closed and he -they- were alone again, he fell to his knees, ignoring the wetness of his eyes.

“You cannot be dead. You weren’t supposed to die!” Eren screamed, hating the look of pity on Levi, or whatever he was now.

“I tried to protect you so many times, but I failed you,” Levi murmured, standing in front of Eren, cupping his face with his cold hand. “I failed you to protect you from yourself.”

Eren took Levi’s wrist, it was impossible to believe that he was gone when he could feel him, touch him, reassuring that, at least a part of Levi, was still by his side.

“People died,” Levi continued, “good men and women, friends, my squad. They died protecting you, and in the end, you became this empty vessel. But I won’t fail again. I won’t leave your side. I will be a reminder of all the people who sacrificed their lives believing in the greatest good, believing that you could be saved.”

After hearing Levi’s words, Eren did what he hadn’t done in a long time. He allowed himself to cry.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [as miitzwrites](https://miitzwrites.tumblr.com/) and let me know what you think of this!!!


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